


one more start

by troiing



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-19
Updated: 2014-07-19
Packaged: 2018-02-09 12:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1982370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/troiing/pseuds/troiing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“I need you in the largest of the settlements now.  We need a permanent representative of the Sanctuary there to keep an eye on things.  I know you’ll allow them their freedom and only step—”</i>
</p><p>That’s when he breaks his fingers on the wall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	one more start

**Author's Note:**

> Months ago now, Brande suggested a fic about Will being jealous of Helen and Nikola's relationship (and being pretty scary about it). So warnings ahead, I guess, for super-creep asshole Will, one-sided UST, and some background Helen/Nikola I suppose?

Hollow Earth closes doors, opens new ones. Every ending is another beginning, and all that. Bright new ideas in a brave new world, and all the opportunity in the world to make it happen.

It’s thinking that Magnus is gone—really gone, and believing it without question—that makes him realize that wanting to be a part of her plans had all been some ridiculous cover-up, from her and from himself. And it’s her sudden openness to Nikola’s perpetual advances when he knows it’s not true that makes him want to throw something out a window.

First, he catches her standing in the doorway of Tesla’s new lab, deaf and blind to everything but the coils of wire for his latest invention, watching him as calmly as if the act itself is meditative, and she’s at peace in that moment. He sees it in the curve of her lips as she observes, smile changing when she turns at the sound of him. Nikola, too, looks up then, and she almost welcomes the scientist’s advances until, with a crooked smile (if it looks awkward, it can’t be a figment of Will’s imagination), she flees the room.

Then it’s a change in banter. The way she looks at Tesla altering when he uses the same old lines. Sometimes it’s more inviting, sometimes more annoyed, than before, but regardless, he knows it’s because the relationship has changed. They’re together, and her shift in reactions are both willing participation and annoyance at his teasing now that things have changed.

Everything— _everything_ —has changed. It’s when he’s meandering down the hall toward her office, hands stuffed in his pockets, and catches sight of Nikola leaning in and her willing response to him from his angle outside the door that something changes in him.

There’s a lull, and he watches what he can of them as Tesla backs Magnus up against the wall. It lasts just a few seconds—he thinks Nikola’s whispered something to her.

Although he makes no real indication that he knew Will was there when he passes out of the office himself, he does have the audacity to exclaim, with his most chipper expression: “Oh! William, what a pleasure—I hadn’t noticed you there.”

* * *

 She knows. Of course she does. Helen Magnus knows everything, especially about Will Zimmerman. He’s been in her sights since he was eight, and she reads him like a book even now. To think, she’s the only one he can’t read—not really. But protégé, partner, pet, however she views him now, he knows that she knows. It’s in those altered interactions with Tesla, mostly; those changes in demeanor are for him as much as they are for the vampire, he’s certain.

What he does not know, or fails to realize, is that the pangs he feels at the discovery are evident. That Helen has begun to work him over, to weigh her options.

He also does not know when it occurs to him to approach her about it. Accept, move on. That’s life with Magnus, and really, that’s how it should be. But it’s not how it is. The minute he corners her, he feels the self-loathing bubble up in the pit of his stomach. It makes the syllables all the more venomous when he spits out his name: “ _Tesla._ ”

Helen peers at him, knowing and unknowing, concerned but not. Her brows furrow, and there’s something hard in the gunmetal blue of her gaze. “What about him?”

“After everything— _Magnus_.”

“After _what_ , Will?” She doesn’t snap, but he thinks she wants to. Her back’s against the wall, but she does not seem to notice.

He can feel the bile rise in him, between them. Can feel his face contorting with rage. Her eyes follow the line of his mouth. “Everything, Magnus. Everything that’s happened. You lock me out, bring me back, lock me out again. And you choose _him_.”

“I haven’t chosen anyone, Will,” she says, too quietly, and he sneers back. “Though now you mention it, I’ve had a task in mind for you for some time now.”

She’s survived all these years by being evasive at times, and he knows for a fact she’s damn good at it now. “And what’s that?” he demands nevertheless, watching the twitch of her mouth very intently when the lines that remind him that nothing is new to Helen appear on her face.

“There’ve been a lot of changes lately, Will.”

He snorts, interrupting her. “No kidding.”

But she goes on, unfazed. “This isn’t the only settlement in Hollow Earth, as you know. Kate and Garrus have been acting representatives in all of the colonies for some time now… Will, I need you in the largest of the settlements now. We need a permanent representative of the Sanctuary there to keep an eye on things.” She watches him watch her—observes his expression as it shifts from scorn to surprise, and then to anger again, but she does not pause. “I know you’ll allow them their freedom and only step—”

And Will Zimmerman, prone to fits of temper, certainly, but always a man of reason, swings his fist in a gesture that is much too familiar, slamming his fingers into the stone wall behind her. The crack is audible, the outcry low in his throat obviously one of pain as well as frustration and anger.

For all of it, she does not try to defend herself. She doesn’t duck out of the way, or show him what she thinks of his actions, his emotions, through physical force. Instead, she throws her arms around his shoulders, thrusting her chin into his shoulder and holding onto him with fierce and stubborn resolve. He tenses, tries to jerk away, but she holds on tight, locking her arms around him with her body pressed close to his.

Will is Will, and no one else. Her idealist protégé, her stubborn partner, he cleaves to certain values and behaviors, and he will not sacrifice them for anyone or anything.

She’d never shied away from John, and she certainly will not flee from Will. Her reasons are similar enough, though her willingness to be so close after such a boldly suggested threat speaks volumes.

Perhaps it’s this knowledge that makes him cave; he wraps his arms around her just as fiercely, and she feels the jerk of his shoulders as he buries his face in her hair.

“ _Magnus_ ,” he hisses at length, with a desperate strength to his hold on her waist that is sure to leave bruises.

“I really could use you in the Chilean sector, Will.”

“Stop.”

“With Kate and Garrus traveling around—it’s too much for two people. I need someone there. You’re the best one for the job.”

“Yeah.”

She hears the break in his voice and eases one arm away, fingers moving into the hair at the nape of his neck and stroking gently. She’s good at treating others as peers, at pushing her centuries of experience away in favor of a human experience—but now, Will’s the eight-year-old boy crying in her lap, a petulant teenager, a willful child.

“I’m so sorry, Will.”

He hesitates for a long moment before replying again, gruffly: “Yeah.”


End file.
